NIH initial layoffs hit agency’s RTP campus as NC workers worry over future
.jpg "A sign outside the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.")
Among the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health, only one is headquartered away from greater Washington, D.C.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park studies human-environment reactions to promote public health. An early RTP tenant in the 1960s, the institute today shares a Durham campus with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Like its neighbor, NIEHS fired a number of early-career “probationary” workers last month amid the Trump administration’s effort to slash the federal workforce.
“Unfortunately, the Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment at the Agency,” read a Feb. 14 email reviewed by The News & Observer from Jeffrey Anoka, acting chief human capital officer at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Anoka informed affected NIH workers they would immediately be put on paid administrative leave until their terminations go into effect on March 14.
Around 25 NIEHS employees were impacted by the layoffs says Edith Lee, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2923, which represents the North Carolina-based office. These workers were still on trial periods, meaning most had been at the agency for less than a year and were therefore easier to terminate. Lee added the union is attempting to have some terminated workers reinstated.
NIEHS has just under 700 employees, Lee said, and remaining staff fear for the future.
“I cannot tell you the countless calls I have had with individuals, they break down in tears,” she said. “The public is being told that we are nonproductive, we’re not high performance. And all of it is a lie.”
Jeremy Berg, former director of another NIH institute, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, said NIEHS stood out beyond its unique geography. “There’s a lot of public concern about the increase in disease caused by an environmental factor,” he said. “That was something that they tended to study more than other institutes.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, did not respond to questions regarding the scope of February’s layoffs. Nor did the spokesperson for NIEHS.
In February, NPR reported the agency had cut around 1,200 of its 18,000 positions. Workers brace for further reductions.
Last month, the NIH told its 27 institute directors they must reduce staffing to 2019 headcounts, around 10% below 2024 levels, the outlet Science reported. Lee said she has seen this directive from the Office of Management and Budget.
Probationary workers have been terminated at multiple federal agencies since President Donald Trump took office, including at the U.S. Forest Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, Internal Revenue Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Around 390 EPA employees were fired last month, including at the agency’s largest physical campus in RTP.
“President Trump was elected with a mandate to create a more effective and efficient federal government that serves all Americans,” the EPA said in an email after the layoffs. “And we are doing just that.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "NIH initial layoffs hit agency’s RTP campus as NC workers worry over future."
